An American In the Lion's Den
by Natalynn
Summary: Elena Adams' life wasn't the best. Her mother died when she was a child, her dad didn't understand how to raise a girl, and through all that he had forgotten to tell her that he and her mom were wizards. From the moment her magic had showed up she had been homeschooled. Now she is attending Hogwarts in her seventh year and doesn't really know what to do about James Sirius Potter.
1. Prologue

**The idea for this story just popped into my head one night. I promise to try to update this story as much as possible.**

An American in the Lion's Den: Prologue

Elena Adams had only ever had her dad. Her mom had died just 3 months after giving birth to her. She had been coming to pick Elena up from her aunt's house when another car rammed into her. The doctors said she died instantly. From then on all she had ever heard from other people when she told them her mother had died was "I'm so sorry for your loss" and "It was such a tragic accident". Though she truly wasn't that sad she didn't want to seem heartless so she thanked them and smiled a sad smile. Elena did care about her mother's death she just wasn't devastated because she never really knew anything about her mother. That is until she went into the attic when she was 10. It was dark and dingy and didn't seem important at all. That was until the picture moved. It was so fast that if she had blinked she would have missed it. But luckily she didn't she gasped and ran over to the picture that depicted her mom and dad at some school. She looked at some letters she found in a box that were sent to Hogwarts which was a school in Scotland. Elena knew they had lived in England but seeing this changed her entire view of them. As she looked through the letters one caught her eye. It was from her grandmother. She gingerly opened it and her eyes skimmed the page and when she reached the bottom of the page tears were splattering the paper, matching up with the old tear drops that had been shed by my mother when my grandmother had written about my grandfather's death. The next letter was from Hogwarts to my mother. It was congratulating her for being accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Elena's mouth dropped open and she nearly passed out.

**I'm sorry this was so short and to some people it may seem unimportant but you will find out why it is.**


	2. Train Ride

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters or the ones in this story you might recognize. And about the Malfoy girl, I just really wanted a Malfoy in Gryffindor but I see Scorpius as a Slytherin with Albus. I'm really sorry it took so long to post this chapter, but I was having major writers block.**

Chapter 1: Train Ride

Elena's POV

My knees were shaking as I stood in my isolated corner of platform 9 3/4. From my secluded corner I had a great view of everyone running around greeting their friends, paying no attention to the girl who fades into the background. It's not that I wasn't pretty because I knew I wasn't hard to look at with my tan skin from living in the south and my dark brown hair that reached just below my shoulder blades. But the best thing about me was my eyes. They were a deep blue that had hints of violet swirling in them making my dad gush about how they looked just like the midnight sky. I knew this was partly because these were the only feature I had gotten from my mother. But I was easily over looked because I didn't say much. I went on and on with my family and friends but in loud situations I preferred to just sit back and watch the scene before me play out.

Just then a family walked onto the platform. There was a girl who looked about 14 with waist length red hair, brown hair and a shocking spray of freckles across her nose. Next to her stood a boy who was about 16 with raven black hair and sparkling green eyes that were partially hidden behind glasses. He looked like a carbon copy of the man who stood behind him just like the girl who looked exactly like the woman I presumed to be the mother. My eyes moved to the next person and my breath caught in my throat when I saw they were already staring at me. The boy's chocolate brown eyes looked at me with an analyzing yet amused stare. His brown hair was a messy flop on his head that looked effortless yet he pulled it off. He also was tall and very good looking. So why was he staring at me like I was some puzzle he wanted to solve. I blushed and ducked my head down so my hair was covering my face. Out of the corner of my eye I could see him smirking.

"He does that with all the girls."

I looked up to see a girl with bleached blonde hair and makeup caked onto her face.

"What?" I asked genuinely confused.

"I said he does that with all the girls. He smiles and flirts with them but just know he's mine." She said with a haughty look. I didn't really understand how to react because I had never been in a situation like this. I was about to respond when a voice cut in.

"Honestly Tabitha, James isn't even attracted to you." A girl said from behind me.

"That is so not true Malfoy." Tabitha whined with a sour look on her face. Another girl joined the girl named Malfoy.

"Seriously Tabitha get lost." The second girl said. Surprisingly Tabitha did what she said. I shot them both a grateful smile and that was when I saw how pretty they were. It wasn't try-hard pretty like Tabitha but it was natural beauty and I suddenly felt intimidated. The first girl had platinum blonde hair that reached her mid back and sparkling grey eyes. She flashed me a blindingly white smile and my self confidence fell a bit. I turned to the other girl and saw that she had red hair gathered up into a ponytail with light blue eyes and a playful smile on her face.

"I'm Cecilia." The first girl said with a smile.

"And I'm Dominique," The redhead said "Are you new here?"

"Yeah I just moved here from America." I responded shyly.

"Oh. I love America!" Cecilia said squealing. Dominique turned with an annoyed face.

"You have never been to America and stop squealing like that it hurts my ears." She said complaining. Cecilia stuck her tongue out at her. Then she turned to me.

"So, what's your name?" She asked.

"Elena." I responded feeling a little more comfortable with them.

"Well Elena, you have got to sit with us on the train." Dominique said.

"I just love the name Elena!" Cecilia said. Dominique rolled her eyes and dragged me towards the train.

When we got to the compartment I saw two other girls sitting there. One girl had shoulder length brown hair while the other had curly black hair that went down to her waist. Dominique and Cecilia walked in and sat down while I awkwardly stood in the doorway. The girl with the brown hair turned to me and a confused look graced her face.

"Why aren't you sitting down." She asked with a soft voice. I blushed and hurried to take a seat. The girl with black hair smiled at me and turned back to her book.

"I'm Clara and that's Vivian." The girl with brown hair said.

"Don't worry, Vi doesn't talk much to people she doesn't know very well. It's not personal." Dominique said.

I nodded and looked down at my hands. Dominique, Vivian, and Cecilia then launched into a conversation and I was easy to see they had all been friends for ages. A sinking feeling appeared in my stomach and I just knew that even though these girls were trying to be nice to me I would just never fit in with them. I then hated my dad for homeschooling me. Maybe I would have had better social skills if I had been allowed to go to school like other kids. I sighed and realized that he was just trying to keep me safe so he would never lose me like he lost my mom. Or at least that's what Aunt Bethany says. I looked up to see Clara looking at me. I shifted my gaze to the corner and could feel her sit next to me.

"You can talk to us you know." Clara said.

"About what?" I asked unsure of myself.

"Anything."

With that the other girls turned to listen while I told them about everything that I could think of and for the first time in my 16 years I felt like I really had friends.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

About a hour later a clatter arose near the door we turned just in time to see a boy with red hair trip in the hallway. He quickly recovered and burst into the compartment.

"Hello ladies." He exclaimed with a bow.

"Fred." Cecilia replied.

Another boy popped his head in the door and announced himself as Thomas Wood, and that I should call him Tom. Right behind them stood the boy I had seen on the platform. He smiled at me and I grinned back, overcome with a sudden surge of confidence. He took that as an invitation and sat down right between Clara and me.

"James Sirius Potter." He said while he stuck out his hand.

"Elena." I replied.

Once the boys had decided to sit down and stay to talk I found out a lot about them. Apparently they had all been family and family friends since they were little, except from Cecilia and Vivian who they had met at Hogwarts. There were also stories of epic pranks and scandalous mishaps. Laughing when something funny was said, I realized this was probably one of the best things that had ever happened to me. Eventually the soft lull of the train was enough to put me to sleep.


End file.
